After getting a good result at Canberra two weeks ago I was keen to backup at Bega. Luckily there was very little to do on the car after Canberra
However Sam was being very responsible and studying for his last CA subject so I had another Mazda/Stanza friend stepping in to nav, the only pity is that he is a Victorian
Stage 1 - Knew we had to push pretty hard from the start because it would be easy to drop a fair bit of time on a 45km stage if you weren't on the ball. Got into the groove for the first 10km then decided to up the pace a little. It was a great stage and went really quickly, in fact I think the time was quicker than the 35km stage at Canberra two weeks prior. We got to the end of the stage with the brakes smelling good.
We went about 1min slower than Stewy and were about 25secs on Campbell Eastwood in another Stanza from Victoria.
Stage 2/3 - These were great stages, really liked the roads and the Stanza was performing well. In SS3 I got worried when I was looking at the sun but somehow had water drops on the windscreen, soon worked out the water temp was fine and it was in fact rain when we started to hit big puddles of standing water near the end of the stage! We were still doing respectively against Stewy but Eastwood had taken about 16secs off us leaving us about 9secs in front going into the last stage.
Stage 4 - Put some new rears on for this stage knowing that it was going to be a bit wet, also bolted the driving lights on which was a good decision. We went into SS4 holding a 9sec lead for 2nd 2WD but also had a good ACT Series lead... tough decision on what to do. I figured we would keep driving the same pace and if the weather really turned bad then we would back off. I found most of the stage alright and it wasn't too hard to pick the bad corners, that said a few corners were a little interesting. It got dark in the second half of the stage so I was really happy to have put the driving lights on. Pushed through the whole stage and was super keen to look at the results at the end. Had only dropped 4secs to Eastwood so held onto 2nd 2WD by 5secs, I was stoked. Get back to service to find out Stewy and Anna (that's crap luck) had a flat in stage and dropped 3mins and we had managed to sneak 1st 2WD on the short event! Stoked!
Also, I have to say I didn't really understand why short event competitors had to stick around for the compulsory 40min (50min considering you could check in early) service at the end of SS4 to only then transport back to the finish. We didn't need to touch the car so it was annoying to sit around doing nothing. On the same note I can't say I am a fan of parc ferme for those competitors who aren't top 3 in the state round. We had to wait from around from 7pm till 30 mins after last car (which was apparently recovery?) so could not put the car on the trailer till 9:30, massive waste of time. This is a massive problem as this significantly reduces beer drinking time.
Also, on the final transport coming through Eden I saw a Police 4WD waiting to turn out of a side street, I'm thinking please don't pull out behind me, which of course meant they did. I'm pottering along at about 50km in the 60km zone knowing the Polizia are behind me and I get a couple of high beam flashes... great. I speed up a little towards the speed limit and the high beams come on full blast from behind... wow, even better. Figure it's about time I pull over and the Polizia conveniently follow me and switch on the disco lights. Officer approaches me and says we are having a RBT, of course no problems there! She asks to see my licence, by some stroke of luck at the start of the rally I said to Dad I had best grab my licence and chuck it in the car seeing its double demerits. I tell her it's in the back in a pouch (to which she seems dubious) and I get out to get it just as Dad (who was following us back from the service park) comes past to a great shock of seeing us pulled over by the Police. I retrieve my licence and she checks and says we are good to go, asks if the rally on and say I yes, down around Kiah. Police happily go on their way and I can now relax! Very happy when we finally get back to Bega and park the car in parc ferme!
Ok, that's enough rambling, now to the important stuff!
Firstly, a big thanks to my Dad, Phil, for servicing for me again and for all the prep work on the car. It is really nice to be getting some solid results for all the hard work put in. Also I'd like to thank Sean for the great job he did navigating. I was a bit surprised when he said the road book was busy compared to normal Victorian ones! Don't know what they are up to down there!
I would also like to thank all the officials and volunteers who stood out in the forest in some variable conditions to let us have fun, also to the organising committee for a solid event. Hopefully my few qualms from this years event could be addressed.
Finally, it was also nice to have the guy who built your engine and the guy who tuned the engine around at the rally. Thanks to Bob Bridge for the solid 2.4 that just keeps on pulling and to Buzzard for the tune that hasn't missed a bit. Both guys come highly recommended for any work, knowledge and support from these guys is second to none.
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